


how to annoy your boyfriend into (possibly) embracing (some) change

by keeplovinanyway



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Bickering, Established Relationship, I can't seem to write anything else but introspection and bickering, M/M, it's about the clothes video
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 17:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12370293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keeplovinanyway/pseuds/keeplovinanyway
Summary: Dan plots #ClothesForPhil because, frankly, he sometimes knows better than Phil what's good for him.





	how to annoy your boyfriend into (possibly) embracing (some) change

The thing is, Dan knows Phil.

He’s known Phil for a time that‘s coming ridiculously close to ten years now. He knows his thoughts and his logic and how his mind works.

So Dan knows that, if he wants Phil to accept a new idea, he has to bully him into it. Just a little bit at least.

 

It’s in between a meeting with the management and a movie date that opportunity presents itself to Dan in form of a whiny Phil.

“I need to make a video soon,” he sighs. They’re walking to the tube station. It was a long meeting, Dan kind of has a headache forming behind his temples, and Phil is subtly leaning into him because it’s cold and rainy and they’re both tired.

Dan raises his eyes at Phil.

“It’s just,” he says and stops, and starts again. “It’s just that the last one was that test taking one so that’s not an option again, and the story about the wolf man needs to be planned out more, and all the others are just...” He huffs out something sounding like annoyance.

Dan has had his mind racing since he heard the word “video”, so his next words are perfectly prepared and made just so that they would appeal to his boyfriend the most.

“Do something fun,” he prompts, “something easy but that the fans would like. Like… let them… pick out your clothes or something. With a hashtag. You wouldn’t have much work and they’d definitely be happy as fuck.”

“Don’t swear,” Phil shushes, “there’s kids here.”

“I could pick out the clothes for you. It’d be fun!”

“Do you really think they would like that? Isn’t it too boring?”

They’ve just reached the platform now. Dan glances up to see that the tube is coming in two minutes, and then fixes Phil with a deadpan.

“Trust me. They’ll love it.”

 

Dan loves it.

The viewers freaked out the minute Phil had sent the tweet, and he has stalked the hashtag religiously ever since. Phil is shielding his eyes every time he so much as glances at a screen in front of Dan, because Phil Lester takes these kind of things very seriously.

Dan cackles at the ridiculous outfits they find and teases Phil to no end. But secretly – secretly he takes this very seriously too.

The clothes style discussion is one they’ve had for years. ‘You’d suit this’, Dan would say. ‘I don’t know,’ Phil would respond, already taking it off or closing the tab or looking away again. ‘I am just not that kind of person.’

He’s a “pow, here I am” person he thinks. One that wears only bright colours and shirts with funny prints and dark skinny jeans.

But Dan, Dan just sometimes walks in on Phil being cozied up in a wide jumper he borrowed from Dan, or he pictures him in these bright trousers in the store they just passed, and he- wants.

And Phil would want too, he thinks, if he weren’t too insecure of his style and too rigid in what he knows and if he just had the opportunity to try it, once. If he just had the opportunity to take it a little bit seriously but not too much and just see what others say, others who aren’t “just biased”, as he always tells Dan.

So Dan yells at Phil in the other room about this ridiculously glittery tank top a viewer posted and silently clicks on the link to some ripped jeans, and a yellow shirt, and a longer one that might frame his body in just the right way.

And when Phil asks whether he’s doing some nice ones too, eyes a little nervous and a little eager under the nonchalantness with which he tried to carry the question, Dan smiles softly and nods, and opens another tab.

 

The whole thing is carefully planned out.

He’ll start with giving Phil an outfit he kind of likes. The black skinny ripped jeans, close enough to his normal style, nothing too out in the open. The longer gray shirt with the beanie and the shoes.

Then the jacket and the hat, still a somewhat feasible option. He’ll finish this section with the jacket Safiya tweeted, because they love her, and it also looks really cozy and he knows they’ll wear it around the house a lot. This is a bit of a more serious section for the fans, and to ease Phil into it as a start.

Then there’s the middle part. Dan calls it “ridiculous but also what the world really needs to see”. It features a wings sweater, a sleeveless shirt that has him drooling just thinking about seeing Phil in it, a glittery jumper, a short pink suit (Dan was internally screaming when he ordered it), a camouflage outfit, sushi underwear that he already knows Phil won’t put on, and a cheese costume. All of this is specifically designed just so that it would be funny and awkward and beautifully uncomfortable. It’s for Phil to laugh it off, to not take it too seriously.

The next section holds utter importance. White ripped skinny jeans and yellow shirt, he can only imagine them to look delicious on Phil. Some other trousers and a jumper he thinks Phil would really like. This right here is the key. This is what needs to work, and where Phil needs to be ready to accept something looking differently on him. If the previous section hasn’t been weird enough, it might all go down the drain. This _needs_ to work.

And lastly, because Dan is not an idiot who can’t scheme properly, there is an awful glittery shiny suit that makes a perfect end to the video. Because Dan has watched Phil’s videos for ten years and if there’s one thing he knows, it is that Phil needs to end a video just right.

Metallic green and silver with an awful texture is the just right for this case.

This is the plan that Dan has scribbled down in his notes, secretly and a bit ashamedly. But Phil will thank him for it, later. If everything goes right. When, when it does.

 

The highlights of filming the video include:

1\. Phil looks so hot in ripped jeans.

2\. He is adorably uncomfortable while wearing outfits he doesn’t feel confident in and Dan wants to gather him into his arms. (He laughs loudly instead.)

3\. Dan is allowed to compliment his boyfriend on camera.

4\. Phil sometimes actually modeling in a hot way

5\. there is almost no limit to the commentary Dan can make

6\. Phil is adorable. And hot.

7\. Phil’s manly strut oh my hecking god

 

Not everything goes perfectly though. Dan is very bummed about the following things:

1\. Phil doesn’t cat walk seriously even though he looks fucking good, why can’t he just fucking do it, jesus christ

2\. when Phil says “I don’t wanna come out”, Dan can only say “come on Phil. Confidence is all you need!” instead of a way cheesier coming out comment that’s on the tip of his tongue. It happens two more times and Dan has to hold himself back with an amount of strength that leaves him exhausted for the rest of the day.

3\. Dan is unsure if he’s totally comfortable with all those people seeing so much skin of Phil that usually only he gets to look at. On the other hand he feels like he’s showing off. Lots of emotional confusion, you see.

 

Overall, it definitely is a success. Because the plan works. (Of course, it was ingenious.) Phil laughs off everything that was ridiculous and is critical about only some of the outfits that Dan included as somewhat serious options. He tries things that he would have never dared to wear before and decides they look good on him, something Dan very vocally encourages. They end filming with great video footage for Phil, with high hopes that he might wear a few new things on Dan’s side, and a bunch of clothes on the keep pile.

 

The real success happens a couple of days later.

“Phil,” Dan yells, louder than necessary, as he walks into the bedroom. “Phil, have you seen my-”

He stares, and Phil stares back, and Dan stares and stares and smirks. “Have you seen my charger,” he continues much quieter, his tone carrying a million more things that are on the tip of his tongue.

Because he’s caught Phil checking himself out in the mirror, wearing the white ripped jeans and the studio ghibli shirt.

“Um,” Phil starts uncomfortably, “uh I-”

Dan starts full on grinning.

“Did you try to wear this sneakily without me noticing?”

Phil blushes and shakes his head much too violently to be convincing. “No! I just- my other clothes are dirty?”

As Dan breaks into a full on laugh, Phil starts grinning to and shoves playfully at Dan’s chest. “Oh shut up! It suits me. Whatever. I look good.”

Stepping closer, Dan lays his hands on Phil’s waist and presses a little kiss to his mouth. His chest feels warm and so does the smile on his face. “You do,” he agrees, quiet and proud.

Phil looks even better as he blushes a bit more and leans in to kiss Dan fully and deeply.

When they separate, he steps back to look at himself in the mirror again assessingly.

“You know, I actually hate you.”

“What?!” Dan squawks. How dare he! After all he’s done! “Why?”

Phil chews his lip and keeps looking. “You were absolutely right. I would have never chosen to wear this but it looks good and I hate you.”

He sighs and lets himself fall backwards on the bed as Dan let’s out a triumphant “whoop”.

“I hate admitting when you were right about things.”

“Too bad I always am, my dear.”

Dan crawls over Phil and attacks him with tickles, which- he should have known that was a bad idea, because Phil is stronger, and he quickly shifts their positions and tickles Dan instead, who’s the one much more affected by this. He gasps and laughs and pleads for mercy until Phil, kindly, relents on him.

“I hate you,” Dan smiles, and, because he has to be the proud little shit that he is, “Did you know that I planned this whole video just for you to try out something new?”

Phil is annoyingly smart though so he just laughs and nods. “Of course I did. You’re you.”

“Why did you let me do it anyway?”

Phil hits at Dan and hides his face behind his hand. “Don’t make me say it.”

“Say it.”

“No.”

“Say it,” Dan laughs, “say that you trust me! That I’m smart!”

Phil smiles from out under his hands. “I’d never trust you.”

They bicker back and forth like this, and in the end Dan gives up, because he has heard Phil say yes in a million different ways even though he doesn’t admit it.

What counts is that he gets to have been right about something, plus also seeing Phil walk around in pretty clothes. There’s really nothing more a man could want in life.

**Author's Note:**

> meh idk how I feel about all of this in its entirety. it didn't really "flow" like i felt it should and there's so much dialogue in the end because it jUST WOULDNT END RIGHT. but i also really wanted to post it so here you go!  
> I'm always very open to constructive criticism by the way :) 
> 
> thanks for reading!


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